I'd not really thought about it until recently, but it's nearly here.

Yes it's not too far off at all. We're now in to June by a few days, which means it's not long at all until we can finally fish the rivers again. I enjoy the canals for a while, it's a change and it gives me a break from chucking big lures as I mostly just take out the ultra light rod. But when it gets to about now I start to get the urge to throw a big jerk bait.

This time of year the canal fishing starts to annoy me. My local ponds aren't the best either. On the shallow canals there's a mass of weed taking over so little cranks are a nightmare to fish. Half the casts are ruined before they start because they hit some bit of weed a foot below the surface. Add to that some sunshine and the boaters are out in full force. The annoying weed becomes even more annoying than you could ever believe. It's whipped up and thrown around making sub surface lures a waste of time. At the weekend we were catching fish on a small canal but by about half ten the boaters were out and after the fourth or fifth went past we had to come up with a plan B. Add to that further that the canal then turns a murky dark colour from all the mud that's chucked up and we're left pulling our hair out. However if you can get on them before the boats are out, or late evening when they have calmed down and all the mud and weed has settled down you can manage to get some fun using surface frogs. We've already picked up a couple of fish using this method and when the pike are in full, mental swing taking frogs off the top it's amazing fun.


If you haven't tried it yet, get yourself a medium lure outfit, some braid of around 40lb with a suitable wire trace and a couple of surface frogs. Decent makes that I've used are the Koppers Live Target and the Spro BronzeEye frogs. Both virtually identical and perfect in my opinion. You can fish waters you previously thought were out of bounds. Where the weed has taken over or a mass of lilies covering the surface you can cast these weedless frogs over the top and bring it right through everything. Slowly twitching the frog from one lilly to the next, stopping it on a pad and then giving it a few twitches through the next tiny clearing. Don't expect a take in the clearing though. Nah, none of that. These pike are mental when they're hitting the frogs and they'll smash right up through the weed and pads and you'll miss the first half a dozen fish just gawping at what you just saw. Honestly, this fishing is nerve racking, edge of the seat poo your pants stuff. You'll be left amazed, amused, confused and frustrated but when you finally hook one you'll have as big a smile on your face with a three pound jack as you would with a new pb.

Spro BronzeEye frog

Perfect for frogging

So what else pisses me off this time of year. Other anglers that's who. It's mostly just me, I don't like seeing others on the bank as I like it all to myself. Some canals at this time of year are full of pole fishermen and the general match angler. Some chaps you can chat to and pass the time of day but some of them are a right set of miserable old bleeders. Jesus Christ, apologies if you're one of the decent match lads but for those that are of the arrogant wanker type, kiss my hairy balls. You get right on my tits. Another reason I hate fishing the canals right now. The times I've been out over the last few months in miserable rain and wind, caught a few fish and right enjoyed myself but as soon as the sun is out all these folk come out to play. I swear one of these days I'm hitting the canals on my push bike and I'm riding straight through those thousand pound poles and off in to the distant sunset.

Is my frustration coming out? Can you tell I'm ready for some solitary pike fishing on smelly rivers no one fishes? Frig me, I can't wait.

MH custom lures Alphabet

So last weekend me and my buddy were out as usual trying to think of somewhere to catch a few fish. The tiny canal was the starting point and we had a few fish. I just had the ultra light rod while Woody also brought a second rod which he put a frog on. He fancied a dabble to see if he could wangle one out and after a few follows and fish missing the lure he eventually snagged one. However it was the MH Alphabet crank that did the trick. After a pike charged out a few times only to refuse the frog, he quickly made the switch and the pike took the alphabet first pass. A little later after some perseverance he finally had his first on a frog this year and it got us thinking a little more about using them. I wasn't having much luck until I put on small jerkbait. It was one I picked up in a second hand shop, hand painted by someone but it looked to me like a small Salmo Slider. At least I was using jerk baits and I enjoyed that and then not long in to it I bagged a jack. Then a little later I put on a Rapture Swimmy I'd had sent to me by Lure Lounge to try out. A soft lure with a diving lip. One of those soft lure swimbaits that you just know will bag some fish and I had a jack in no time at all. The canal muddied up not long after that so we had to go elsewhere and this also meant a change of tactics.

Rapture Swimmy

On the new canal it was jigging and small cranks. A much larger canal with more depth, less weed and loads of match men. Oh heaven! It was after lunch time now and we'd lost interest in serious fishing and just had a play around. I don't know how it came about but we ended up trying to catch fish on every lure in our box. If we caught on a Kopyto we switched to a Rapala and when we caught on that, on went a Yogi. In the end we'd caught fish on about twelve or thirteen lures. Proving that it's often not the lure but what you do with it. It was good to have a mess around and catch some fish, light hearted fun and a good bit of sport. We've a few more weekends to get through and this week we'll be trying to think of something or somewhere to go that'll keep us beaming and not just going through the motions. Lure fishing for us is meant to be fun. We love to catch the river monster or the huge spiky dorsal Sargent but in between those sessions we just like to have some fun.

Not long now.

Savage Gear Manic shrimp

Relax Kopyto shad

Tungsten jig

Rapture Vibra Shad

Rapala Jointed shad rap

PB Perch

With the chance of some perch, I managed to persuade my lad out for a session. He's not yet got the fishing bug so I don't push him, I just occasionally ask him and if he doesn't fancy it I leave it at that. But he's been wanting to catch a perch, can you believe he's never caught one? A fish many of you lot would have learnt your trade on. How times have changed. So after I had a decent session the other day, he figured the odds of catching one might be in his favour and I might just be able to keep his attention for a little while, at least long enough to have some fun.

I talked him through the basics, explained how my little Greys rod would help him catch a fish and what to feel for and which areas he might catch a fish. I left him to do it and told him to just cast where he wanted and see if he could find some fish. I expected a perch to be somewhere here, at least a small one anyway. The Kopyto kept bouncing along the bottom and he was getting a bit excited striking at nearly every knock, but I explained he's better getting used to hitting everything than ignoring the knocks as that just breeds the wrong mentality and then when a fish comes you miss it. We'd been there ten minutes or so and he was finally in to the swing of it and then he finally got a proper knock. The rod tip was banging away and he had his first perch on. He was chuffed to bits with it!

I didn't really think many perch were in this bit of water so I made the call to move. Perch are the type of fish to at least show themselves with follows and often they chase the lure at least but we hadn't seen anything except that one perch. I knew that to keep him interested he needed to keep catching. This new spot had him straight in to the action and a slightly better stamp of perch was banked and he quickly followed that up with half a dozen more fish. He was well happy with that and so he even gave the rod to me for a go. We took it in turns to catch a perch and then pass the rod and the fish kept coming. We'd had plenty of perch now and he took a time out, leaving me to fish and since the small perch were all we had been catching I took to searching the area. I stuck on my rather old, but weighty spinner so that I could launch a huge cast and see If I could locate anything larger. I plucked out a few perch pushing the ten ounce size and then finally I got a better knock and was in to a perch of a pound or more. I was glad I'd caught something a bit bigger so that he could get a good look at a perch of size rather than just the tiddlers. He was still happy for me to fish as he was now messing with the camera taking photos of random stuff, so I kept searching for the big fish.

The sun was starting to go down a little and the light was starting to fade and I explained that this is often the time that bigger perch will feed. That they move in to areas where the smaller fish are in search of easy pickings and that one pound fish might just be the start of a few bigger fish coming in. I had a tiny tap on the rod followed by a whack and I was in. I knew it was another decent perch and when he saw it come up he thought it was massive. I didn't weight it but it was probably a pound and a half so a long way off a record but he was as impressed with a big perch as we all are. He took a few photos and then we slipped it back. I reckon Woody will love this photo.

"There's a new pb out there for you mate" I explained. If those big fish are in the area he had a right good chance of a getting one and so I gave him the rod and the spinner. He cast out and I told him to let the spinner sink a little and then retrieve. Immediately he struck in to something but it turned out to be the bottom. Luckily a few flicks of the rod tip and it was out and I told him to carry on winding in and within seconds the rod tip shot round and he was battling something which we already knew was better than any of the others he'd caught. No monster, but it's a decent perch and a new pb for him, not quite a pound but a proper perch and he was over the moon.

Jacks red letter day

My son wanted to come with me today and have a bash at lure fishing. He comes occasionally but hasn't had the best of luck recently, only getting one fish so far. So after my crazy session yesterday where I bagged ten in an hour from one spot, we decided to go there both armed with a rod. The idea was for Jack to fish first until he catches a fish and then at that point we both get chucking. We crept up to the first peg and I explained to him where to chuck, what the water was like and where I thought a fish might lay up. It wasn't long before he had a take but as quick as that the bend in his rod had gone and the fish was off. I knew he'd be a bit gutted at this point because he'd had some blanks the few times he'd been out. I brushed off the miss and told him he'd get a fish, just get the lure back in the water.

I was setting up my rod when I heard Jack shout me and I looked around to see him bending in to another fish. Giving him a few pointers, mainly to keep his line tight, I stood by with the net. It wasn't a monster pike but I wanted to net this one as quickly as possible to make sure he landed it. After a bit of a tussle Jack got the pike around to the net and I scooped it in. High fives all round and Jack had a big cheesy grin. A healthy fish of around five pounds was quickly unhooked and put back. We then set about both having a bash, gave the peg a few more casts and then moved on to the next swim.

The second swim was a little larger and meant I could stand twenty yards away and we could both cover the water with our lures. I gave Jack a few pointers on where I'd caught the day before, along the edge, near some reeds and also straight out just off the main flow. My peg was similar and so we both had a good shout at catching here. It wasn't long before Jack was shouting me, but this time he'd missed a pike which had followed right to the edge and hit just as he was lifting out of the water. He couldn't believe what had happened, his nerves were on edge and he was buzzing. This is why lure fishing is something special.

I carried on fishing and yet again I hear him shouting me, and this time he'd hooked in to a pike. A brief tussle and he'd got the fish to the edge, I'd put my rod down and gone over to unhook it for him, chinning it out and giving him a good look. Another healthy fish of around four pound. I went back to my spot, cast in and started to retrieve and then heard Jack shouting me again. A pike had followed his lure, smashed it at the last minute and with Jack striking at the same time the pike ended up flipping clean out of the water and half on half off the bank in the grass and water. I ran over and he was laughing his head off. Another four pound pike bagged and he was beaming.

After half an hour or so maybe a little more we decided to leave this spot and go back to one of my other favourite spots. Jack told me to fish it insisting I should be the next one to get a fish. I was having none of it and told him we're both fishing. You have good and bad days fishing, but so what if it's not my day and he's grabbing all the fish. It's about enjoying your day out with your fishing partner and not who gets the most or biggest fish, even more so when you're out with your young lad, I was having a cracking day just watching him pull them in. We got to our peg and I made a point of encouraging him to cast out and he reluctantly did so. I had around four or five casts and then I hear it again, "Dad!" the lad was in to a fish again. I scrambled to him and picked up the net, caught a glimpse of the fish and knew this one was a bit bigger. He'd already got the fish in close so I scooped the net under it swiftly. I guessed maybe eight and a bit pound, Jack guessed at ten.I weighed it and it was 10lb 4oz and he was chuffed to bits. Four pike for Jack and none for me but I wouldn't swap that result for the world. Well done Jack, great bit of fishing mate!

2012 pike tally

 Doubles 18

Total 105

Largest 22.5lb
Bonus Perch 3